Show gridview footer on empty grid?

Question

just wanted to know what is the best and easiest way to show a gridview footer for data entry even when the gridview is empty ?

Answer 1

More elegantly.. extend GridView and add a ShowFooterWhenEmpty property so that you don't have to implement custom code everywhere.

Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls
Imports System.ComponentModel

Namespace UI.WebControls
Public Class GridViewExtended
    Inherits GridView

    Private _footerRow As GridViewRow

     _
    Property ShowFooterWhenEmpty As Boolean

     _
    Public Overrides ReadOnly Property FooterRow As GridViewRow
        Get
            If (Me._footerRow Is Nothing) Then
                Me.EnsureChildControls()
            End If
            Return Me._footerRow
        End Get
    End Property

    Protected Overrides Function CreateChildControls(ByVal dataSource As System.Collections.IEnumerable, ByVal dataBinding As Boolean) As Integer
        Dim returnVal As Integer = MyBase.CreateChildControls(dataSource, dataBinding)
        If returnVal = 0 AndAlso Me.ShowFooterWhenEmpty Then
            Dim table As Table = Me.Controls.OfType(Of Table)().First
            Me._footerRow = Me.CreateRow(-1, -1, DataControlRowType.Footer, DataControlRowState.Normal, dataBinding, Nothing, Me.Columns.Cast(Of DataControlField).ToArray, table.Rows, Nothing)
            If Not Me.ShowFooter Then
                _footerRow.Visible = False
            End If
        End If
        Return returnVal
    End Function

    Private Overloads Function CreateRow(ByVal rowIndex As Integer, ByVal dataSourceIndex As Integer, ByVal rowType As DataControlRowType, ByVal rowState As DataControlRowState, ByVal dataBind As Boolean, ByVal dataItem As Object, ByVal fields As DataControlField(), ByVal rows As TableRowCollection, ByVal pagedDataSource As PagedDataSource) As GridViewRow
        Dim row As GridViewRow = Me.CreateRow(rowIndex, dataSourceIndex, rowType, rowState)
        Dim e As New GridViewRowEventArgs(row)
        If (rowType <> DataControlRowType.Pager) Then
            Me.InitializeRow(row, fields)
        Else
            Me.InitializePager(row, fields.Length, pagedDataSource)
        End If
        If dataBind Then
            row.DataItem = dataItem
        End If
        Me.OnRowCreated(e)
        rows.Add(row)
        If dataBind Then
            row.DataBind()
            Me.OnRowDataBound(e)
            row.DataItem = Nothing
        End If
        Return row
    End Function

End Class
End Namespace